Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested the former Minister of Power under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration from 2019 to 2021, Sale Mamman.
This was disclosed by sources familiar with the matter. According to the sources, Mamman’s detention is linked to his alleged involvement in a N22 billion fraud.
The ex-minister is being held at the headquarters of the anti-graft agency in Abuja, the sources said on Wednesday.
The probe revealed assets within and outside Nigeria, purportedly connected to the suspects, while millions of naira and dollars have reportedly been retrieved.
In what was termed a cabinet restructuring, President Muhammadu Buhari dismissed Sale Mamman and Sabo Nanono, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, on September 1, 2021.
In 2020, during his tenure, Mamman claimed that a group of people within his ministry was preventing Nigerians from accessing electricity.
He was responding to the backlash that ensued following his suspension of certain high-ranking officials within the ministry.
Pending an investigation into accusations leveled against them, Mamman had placed Damilola Ogunbiyi, the former Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), and Marilyn Amobi, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), on suspension.